Valve body incorporating mounting cup mask and gasket



Dec. 20, 1960 .1. w. SOFFER El'AL 2,965,271

VALVE BODY INCORPORATING MOUNTING CUP MASK AND GASKET Filed Dec. 2'7, 1956 M /2' {Q n, n /s" 10 /8' |1 n 32 INVENTORS $8 .JACK W. SOFFER LEE D. HART AND DONALD M. KITTERMAN 01 jyw ATTORNEY United States Patent "ice VALVE BODY INCORPORATING MOUNTING CUP MASK AND GASKET Jack W. Soirer, St. Louis, Mo., Donald M. Kitterman, Kansas City, Kans., and Lee D. Hart, Kansas City, Mo., assignors to Development Research, Inc., St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Filed Dec. 27, 1956, Ser. No. 630,865

1 Claim. (Cl. 222-542) This invention relates to dispensing valves for singleuse gas-pressure dispensers, and has particular applicability to those containers having a mouth within which is spun a valve-mounting cup, usually after the container has been filled with the product to be dispensed but before the insertion of the propelling gas.

Such a valve-mounting cup forms the top wall of the container. In order to seal it to the mouth of the container so as to resist the internal pressure of gas, it is customary to use a flowed-in rubber gasket. inwardly of such gasket the inner surface of the mounting cup is exposed to the container contents. Using a mounting cup blanked from steel sheet, corrosion may develop during a normal period of shelf storage.

Tests have revealed that corrosion is likely to occur although the sheet metal, from which the mounting cups are stamped, be protectively coated prior to stamping, or even after being formed. We have traced such corrosion to minute defects in the surface so coated when the mounting cup is stretched by being spun outwardly when attached to the container.

The objects of the present invention include providing a combination valve body and gasket which serves as a mask for the inner surface of the mounting cup regardless of its stretching attendant spinning; eliminating the need for a separate gasket; utilizing the qualities of elastomeric material such as polyethylene for purposes of molding a valve body, mask and gasket all in one piece; and utilizing the tension which accompanies the stretching of such a member to help stabilize it and retain it in place Within the container, regardless of deflection of the actuating member of the valve. An additional purpose is to provide a one-piece molded, corrosion-resistant unitary valve member which includes a portion for housing other corrosion-resistant valve parts, to take the place of multipart metallic valve housings which have heretofore been used.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a view, partly in elevation and partly in section, of a dispensing valve incorporating the present invention, before securement to the mouth of the dispensing container.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1, the valve being spun within the mouth of a dispensing container shown in fragmentary section.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of another valve embodying the present invention, after being spun within the mouth of such a container.

In Figures 1 and 2, the adaptation of the present invention to an otherwise familiar form of dispensing valve is shown. A mounting cup 10, stamped out of ductile sheet steel, serves as the top wall for a container generally designated a and shown in Figure 2. The mounting cup has an upwardly-extending annular wall 11 which, prior to such securement to the container a, is substantially cylindrical. The wall 11 terminates in outwardturned mounting cup edge 12, which has the form of an inverted annular trough. Centrally, the mounting cup 10 2,965,27l Patented Dec. 20, 1960 is apertured and provided with an upturned inner flange 13 within which it receives sealingly the outwardly-extending sleeve portion 14 of a resilient sealing member generally designated 15, the construction of which is the principal subject of the present invention.

The resilient sealing member 15 is molded of a somewhat elastic, preferably elastomeric, material such as polyethylene. Its form is annular and tubular. At the base of the sleeve portion 14 the resilient sealing member 15 is annularly enlarged to form an annular body portion 16 whose upper portion is further extended annularly to form a mask portion 17 to cover the entire under surface 18 of the mounting cup 10. The body portion 16 tapers downward and inward from the mask portion 17 and terminates at its lower end in an annular valve seating face 19, which surrounds a lower counterbore portion 20,

lar stem 22 within the counterbore 20 of the resilient seal ing member 15, and a solid valve head 27 closes the bottom of the tubular stem portion 22 and seats against the valve seating face 19.

The mask portion 17 extends radially outward flat against the mounting cup under surface 18, and up the annular wall 11 to completely mask the mounting cup 10 from the contents of the container. At the outer margin of the mask portion 17 is a thin, integrally-molded rim gasket portion 28 which conforms to the inverted annular trough shape of the mounting cup edge 12.

When the valve heretofore described is to be mounted into the container a, shown fragmentarily in Figure 2, the mounting cup edge 12, lined by the rim gasket portion 28 of the resilient sealing member 15, is put in place atop the mouth 0 of the container a. In this position the upturned the mounting cup 10 annularly outward against the con-.

tainer mouth 0 somewhat beneath the center of curvature of its edge. The configuration of the parts after such crimping or spinning is shown in Figure 2.

By this spinning operation the rim gasket portion 28 is brought into continuous contact with the container mouth 0 along its inner side, as shown in Figure 2. As the spin,- ning operation progresses, the upwardly-extending annular wall 11 is spun outward from its original cylindrical shape to secure and seal the mounting cup 10 in place at the top wall of the container. Such spinning stretches the mounting cup 10 and especially its under surface 18, in a manner as is likely to damage any protective coating thereon. 7

Since the elastic or elastomeric sealing member 15 stretches with the spinning of the mounting cup wall 11 into the shape shown in Figure 2, the unbroken masking of the mounting cup under surface 18 is continued. Further tension forces are set up in the mask portion 17, which act in a radial direction and stabilize the position of the sealing member body portion 16.

The taper of the sealing member 15 from its body portion 16 radially outward through the mask portion 17 leads these radial tension forces along a somewhat tapered path, as shown by the arrows in Figure 2. It will be seen that the arrows have a common upward component, by which the valve sealing member 15 is held more steadily in central position up against the under surface 18 of the mounting cup 10.

This steadying elfect of elastic tension in the sealing member is employed also in the embodiment shown in Figure 3, wherein a push-down valve is spun within the mouth of the container a. In this embodiment a mounting cup is utilized, having an upturned inner mounting cup flange 13, an under surface 18', an upwardextending annular wall 11 and an outward-turned mounting cup edge 12 in the shape of an inverted trough-like annulus, all similar to those illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. In the embodiment of Figure 3, there is further employed may be used also with other types of containers.

a generally annular combination valve body, mask and sealing member generally designated 30, preferably molded of an elastomeric compound such as polyethylene. It includes a central upstanding sleeve 31, an annularly enlarged masking surface 32 at the base thereof presented against the under surface 18' of the mounting cup 10', the surface being the upper face of a tapering masking portion 33 extending outward andthence upward to an annular rim gasket 34; also having a deep annular body portion 35 which extends downward and is hollowed to provide a valve chamber 36 to accommodate the valve means hereinafter described. The valve chamber terminates at its lower end in an internally thickened shoulder portion 37, beneath which the generally annular body portion continues in the form of a stub tube portion 38, within which is grasped the upper end of a siphon tube 39 through which the contents of the container a may be discharged.

Within the valve chamber 36 and against the shoulder portion 37 at its bottom rests a compressionspring 40 supporting a spherical valve 41 which seats upwardly against an annular tapered valve seating face 42 at the upper end of the chamber 36. A fluted by-pass stern v43;, molded integral with the spherical valve 41, extends up ward .within a discharge bore 44 on the axis )5 of the sealing member 30 and is actuatedrby downward pressure on nozzle 47 communicating with the discharge tube 45. Theouter surface of the discharge tube portion 45 is sealed within the sleeve 31 by an internal molded girdle 43 which distends the sleeve 31 above the mounting cup flange 13' and tends tohold'the sealing member '30 in place.

Like the embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2, the mounting cup 1t) and seal 30* mounted thereto are placed within the mouth of the container a and spun out- Wardly thereagainst, permanently setting the annular wall 11 of the mounting cup in an outward curve as shown, and distending the masking portion 33 of the seal 30 in tension. This tension, exerted radially, also has an upward component, as shown by the arrowsin Figure 3, sufiicient to withstand a substantial portion, if not all, of the downward force exerted when the actuator cap 46 is depressed.

The problem of corrosion of spun-end container mounting cups has been a serious obstacle to the adoption of single-use pressure dispensers for'many consumer prod ucts, such as shampoos, which have proved to be corrosive to container mounting cups, It is believed that nopressure dispenser heretofore has utilized a stretchable valve member which serves as a mask over the entire inner surface of a mounting cup to be spun sealedly into place in the mouth of the container. Nor has tension in the radially-extended portion of an elastic valve member been utilized to stabilize the position of'th e valve; The tapering of the sealing member mask, to add an upward component-to the tension force to hold-ittightly, flatwise against the mounting cup, is likewise believed to be new.

The embodiment disclosed in Figure 3 utilizes the inventive principles hereof to furnish a corrosion-resistant, onepiece valve housing, mask and gasket, which is believed to be a wholly novel article of manufacture.

While the drawings show the present invention utilized with the type of pressure container having a mouth smaller than the principal diameter of the container, it One example would be an ordinary can in which a top member is attached by seaming, the seaming operation including spinning a portionof the top adjacent its edge outwardly against the inner side of the rim of the can body. In such a seaming operation, the spinning of the top edge against the inner. surface of the container mouth effects a degree of stretching comparable in many respects to that illustrated herein for the container having the mounting cup top.

Other modificationsof the present invention, both in structure and materialsutilized, willoccur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention isnot to beconstrued narrowly, but as fully coextensive with the scope of the claim which follows.

We claim: The combination including a container having a circular mouth, and a dispensing valve comprising a ductile metal,

locatedwithin the mounting cup aperture and havingits principal part beneath the level of the mounting cup bottom, there being withinsaid principal part a vertical central bore concentric withthe central aperture of the mounting. cup, the saidintegral valve body sealing member further including an integral masklike portion extending radially outward from said principal part and tapering thinningly upward and having an upper surface presented flatwise beneath and against the bottom of the mounting cup and extending to the radially outer side of the mounting cup wall and thence upwardly between the inner side of thecontainer mouth and the portion of the mounting cup wall which conforms thereto, said masklike portion being held stretched and tensioned-by that portion of the mounting cup which extends radially beyond the inner radius of the container mouth, together further with valving mechanism within and supported by the central bore of the principal partof the valve body.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Collins Jan. 20, 1959 

